News Archive
Successful PhD Completions in 2011/12
CENTRE FOR CRITICAL AND CULTURAL THEORY
Timothy Matts
Title: Violent Signs: Ecocriticism and the Symptom
Date completed: 16 May 2012
PHILOSOPHY
Andrew Buchanan-Smith
Title: Democracy and Diversity: Political Theories, Liberalisms & Modi Vivendi
Date Completed: 28 March 2012
CENTRE FOR LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION RESEARCH
Gilbert Gabriel
Title: Altered States, Altered Sounds: An Investigation of How 'Subjective States' are Signified by the Soundtrack in Narrative Fiction Cinema
Date Completed: 28 March 2012
BookTalk
The School is very pleased to be involved in Cardiff University's book group with a difference - BookTalk. BookTalk is a book group with a difference. We read high-quality fiction and discuss the big ideas in the books as they relate to twenty-first century life.
At the first BookTalk event on 17 November 2011, Dr Anthony Mandal, Associate Director of the Centre for Editorial and Intertextual Research (CEIR) spoke about knowledge and gender in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, while Dr Keir Waddington in the School of History, Archaeology and Religion brought to life the gothic laboratory.
At the second BookTalk event on 23 February 2012, Dr Tomos Owen, Postdoctoral Fellow in English Literature, discussed narrative voice and the child detective in Stephen Kelman's Pigeon English, while other presenters from the School of Social Sciences and the School of City and Regional Planning examined the text from the perspective of youth crime, immigration and identity and urban geography.
The next BookTalk was held on 12 July and explored Cormac McCarthy's The Road.
BookTalk sessions are free and are open to the public.
Please click here for more information about BookTalk.
Fiction Fiesta
Dr Richard Gwyn, Reader in Creative Writing, arranged ‘Fiction Fiesta’, an intimate but international festival, specialising in fiction and poetry in translation. This event took place on 25 March 2012, teaming novelists and poets from Latin America and Spain with home-grown talent from Wales. The Fiesta aimed to provide a forum for all people with an interest in international literature, from professional translators to the curious or idle dabbler.
Our main guest writer this year was the young Argentinian novelist, Andres Neuman, whose latest novel is the award-winning Traveller of the Century. Other writers and readers at the event included Argentinian poet Jorge Fondebrider, and writers from Wales including Tiffany Atkinson, Tristan Hughes, Desmond Barry, Zoe Skoulding and Philip Gross, as well as publishers Christopher MacLehose, Charles Boyle, and Boyd Tonkin of The Independent, who discussed the topic ‘Literature in Translation: Towards a Promised Land?’.
BAAL Book Prize 2011
The BAAL Book Prize 2011 has been awarded to The Handbook of Language and Globalization edited by Professor Nik Coupland.
The British Association for Applied Linguistics (BAAL) offers an annual prize for ‘an outstanding book in the field of Applied Linguistics.’ Two or more (anonymous) judges read each of the short-listed books and one of them had this to say about this year’s winner:
‘This is an excellent collection of twenty nine wide-reaching, rich and engaging papers on diverse aspects of an immensely important theme, language and globalisation, written by an impressive array of experts in diverse fields of linguistics. The collection comprehensively covers all the major issues, approaches and perspectives on the relationships between globalisation and language, and it also presents a range of contrasting voices, from around the globe, from different research traditions, and from different political positions’.
Learning to Teach
The first cohort of Postgraduate Tutors have completed the School's Learning to Teach module as featured in Cardiff News for October 2011 available here:
http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/3752d1a8#/3752d1a8/12
Completed PhDs in the School
ENGLISH LITERATURE
Elidir Jones
Title: Nationalism and Welsh Writing in Comparative Contexts, 1925 – 1966
Date completed: 9 November 2011
CENTRE FOR CRITICAL AND CULTURAL THEORY
Mareile Pfannebecker
Title: Early Modern Limitrophies: English Representations of Travel to Italy
Date completed: 9 November 2011
PhD Successes
Rebekah Humphreys and Sophie Vlacos, who recently completed PhDs in Philosophy in the School, have edited a volume titled 'Creation, Environment and Ethics' published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. The book contributes to a critical understanding of ethics, evolution and creation and provides a pluralistic response to some of the most pressing issues facing the global environment today. Click the cover to enlarge the image.
Staff Publications
Dr Tristan Hughes, holder of an AHRC Fellowship in the Creative and Performing Arts, launched his new novel 'Eye Lake' at Waterstone's in Cardiff on Wednesday 15 June.
VISIT DR TRISTAN HUGHES'S PROFILE PAGE
We are pleased to announce that Dr Neil Badmington's new book 'Hitchcock's Magic' was published in April 2011 by University of Wales Press. The book focusses draws on the poststructuralist theories of Roland Barthes and Jacques Derrida and takes issue with the biographical and psychoanalytic approaches that have dominated studies of Hitchcock's films to argue instead for the signifiance of textuality. Click the book cover to enlarge the image.
VISIT DR NEIL BADMINGTON'S PROFILE PAGE
We are also pleased to note that Professor Carl Phelpstead's new book 'Tolkien and Wales: Language, Literature and Identity' was published in May 2011, also by University of Wales Press. Dr Phelpstead's text describes more fully than before the extent and depth of Tolkien's debt to Welsh language and literature, and argues that Tolkien's love of Wales and Welsh is inseparable from his love of, and sense of belonging to, England. Click the book cover to enlarge the image.
Tolkien and Wales: A Celebration
VISIT Professor Carl Phelpstead'S PROFILE PAGE
Professor Katie Gramich, Reader in English Literature, has published a monograph on the author Kate Roberts, as part of the University of Wales 'Writers of Wales' series.
VISIT Professor Katie Gramich'S PROFILE PAGE
Dr Richard Gwyn, Reader in Creative Writing, has published a novel 'The Vagabond's Breakfast' which was launched on 15 April 2011 at Waterstone's, The Hayes, Cardiff.
VISIT DR RICHARD GWYNS'S PROFILE PAGE
Dr Claire Connolly, Reader in English Literature, in association with Prof. Angela V John has edited and written a new introduction for 'You're Welcome to Ulster' by Menna Gallie.
Research Grant Successes
Mr Tim Rhys, Lecturer in Creative Writing, has a feature film script going into production - called ‘Crow’, with a £250,000 budget. Shooting will start early in June for three weeks, with the film due for release late in 2011.
Dr Becky Munford, Senior Lecturer in English Literature, has won a British Academy grant to undertake a research project 'Women in Trousers: A Cultural History, 1789 to the Present'. The project looks at the way in which the history of trouser-wearing women in the West is entangled in controversy.
Dr Anthony Mandal, Senior Lecturer in English Literature, is one of the collaborators in a Royal Society of Edinburgh project to prepare and publish the first thirteen volumes of a new standard edition of Robert Louis Stevenson.
Rare and Antiquarian Books to Remain in Wales
A collection of 14,000 rare and antiquarian library books, some dating from the late 15th century, are being saved for future generations to enjoy. A joint initiative between Cardiff Council, Cardiff University, the Welsh Assembly Government, and the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW) has secured the books’ future at Cardiff University.
The Cardiff Rare Book Collection
Learning to Teach in Higher Education
Our new 'Learning to Teach in Higher Education' module has been accredited by the Higher Education Academy, enabling postgraduate research students who are employed to teach in the School to obtain a Master's level teaching qualification and HEA Associate status. We are very pleased to announce that our first group of students and former students achieved their Associate or Fellowship status in April.
Research Assessment Exercise
Follow us on